G.A.O. Recommends Improved Efforts in Nutrition Education

Washington--At a time when the federal government is eliminating
much of its support for nutrition education, a new report from the
General Accounting Office (gao) has recommended that the government
collect and share information on successful school-based
nutrition-education programs.

Nutrition education in the schools is valuable from the point of
view of both health and money, according to the report. An estimated
10-to-40 percent of all schoolchildren are overweight and a high
percentage of them remain overweight when they reach adulthood, it
notes.

While other factors may also be responsible, the report states, poor
eating habits are cited by many experts as a primary cause of obesity.
And the experts agree that the most effective way to develop a
"nutritionally informed population" is to teach schoolchildren about
food and nutrition; they are an "impressionable and captive"
audience.

In addition, the gao researchers point out, the federal government
spends millions of dollars each year to monitor the food-advertising
industry. Nutrition education could eliminate some of these costs, they
say, by teaching children to judge the products for themselves.

Panel to Develop Guidelines

The report, What Can Be Done To Improve Nutrition Education Efforts
in the Schools, also suggests that the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) convene a panel of experts to develop guidelines that would help
school officials evaluate their nutrition-education programs. These
guidelines should be shared with interested state and local educators,
according to the gao report.

Based on a review of existing nutrition-education programs, the
investigative agency's report also examines the state of nutrition
educa-tion at the federal, state, and local levels.

The usda, the agency responsible for most federal
nutrition-education programs in the schools, has taken issue with the
report's recommendation that the federal government take on more
responsibility for nutrition education.

"Our major concern is the pervading theme of the report which
supports federal intrusion into the State and local
nutrition-education-curriculum process," wrote Mary C. Jarratt,
assistant secretary for food and consumer services for the department,
in a March 24 letter of response issued as part of the report.

Although the Agriculture Department is well aware of the importance
of teaching children sound nutritional habits, Ms. Jarratt wrote, "...
in cooperation with the Administration's efforts to control the federal
budget, we feel that the major responsibility for the continuation of
nutrition education in the schools must be returned to the state and
local entities."

The gao report documents the benefits of nutrition education in the
schools--such as reducing "plate waste"--but notes that, according to
the survey, "nutrition education remains basically unstructured,
sporadic, and a low priority." Moreover, the gao researchers found,
most agencies--federal, state, and private--made only limited efforts
to identify and share information on successful nutrition-education
programs in the schools.

Teachers Unprepared

Teacher training is also a problem, according to the report. Since
only a few states require elementary-school teachers to take nutrition
courses as part of their certification requirements, the majority of
teachers are not prepared to teach nutrition. They must rely on
in-service training, which, according to the report, several states
said they encountered problems in providing.

That greater emphasis on nutrition education would lead to both
monetary and health benefits for schools and children is indicated, the
gao report argues, by documented benefits of those programs. For
example, a USDA study found that in California, a nutrition-education
project was followed by an 18-percent reduction in lunchroom food waste
and a 42-percent increase in knowledge of nutrition.

And in Nebraska, the study notes, a similar project was followed by
a 20-percent decline in food waste for many foods served. A comparative
West Virginia study reported similar findings: Schools that
participated in a nutrition project showed a decrease in food waste,
compared to those schools that did not participate.

But although both the USDA and the Education Department have funded
numerous nutrition-education projects, neither agency has made much
effort to provide information on the federal programs to state and
local officials, the investigators point out. "Consequently, many of
these [local] agencies found it difficult to locate successful
nutrition-education projects and materials to help them implement their
nutrition-education programs," the report says.

State officials in three of the four states that agency researchers
studied in depth also reported that they found it difficult to assess
the results of their nutrition-education programs. According to the
report, the officials found it hard to identify what their specific
needs in nutrition education were and to develop a system for
evaluating programs.

Lack of Coordination

This lack of coordination on many levels, the report found, has
prevented nutrition educators from sharing information on successful
programs and from developing a unified strategy. Hence, there may be
overlap between programs.

The agency addresses all of these issues in its recommendations,
most of which stress a strong federal role in gathering, coordinating,
and sharing information. Specifically, the federal accounting agency
recommends that the usda:

Convene a panel of experts to develop guidelines for assessing the
quality of nutrition-education information in the schools;

Share these guidelines with interested state and local education
officials;

Provide state and local education agencies and other interested
parties with the evaluation results and with nutrition-education
information that meets the guidelines.

In addition, gao recommends that the Secretary of Agriculture
discuss with state education agencies "what approaches might be taken
to help ensure that teachers have the basic skills needed to teach
nutrition." For example, state education officials should consider
requiring that new teachers in some fields take nutrition-education
courses, and that teachers now in the classroom improve their knowledge
of nutrition, the report states.

The report has been referred to education and agriculture committees
in both the House and Senate and has been sent to the Office of
Management and Budget, the Department of Health and Human Services,
usda, and the Education Department.

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